ACLU Releases Brutal Dashcam Footage Of MN Motorist Arrest

The recently released dashcam footage of Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez shooting Philando Castile has spurred a lot of outrage, conversation, and debate across the world this week, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going away anytime soon. If anything, it’s going to get people paying closer attention to similar incidents. As it turns out, we didn’t have to wait long for that to happen – and we don’t even have to leave our state.

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union released another squad car video of a July 2016 arrest in Worthington, Minnesota that they are calling “disturbing” and “brutal” – and I’ll be honest, I have to agree with them on this one. In the video, officer Joe Joswiak pulls over the vehicle of Anthony Promvongsa. According to a criminal complaint, Promvongsa was charged with the following:

Assault with a dangerous weapon

Fleeing police in a vehicle

Marijuana possession

Driving with a revoked license

According to the Star Tribune, earlier that day Promvongsa made aggressive acts towards the car of an off-duty police officer, which included tailgating, swerving, and speeding towards the officer’s car before abruptly stopping just in time. When officer Joswiak was informed about the incident, he drove his unmarked vehicle to where Promvongsa was last seen before eventually pulling him over. I won't describe what happens next, as it's best for you to form your own opinion by watching the footage itself:

*** WARNING – PROFANITY AND GRAPHIC VIOLENCE IN VIDEO. NOT SAFE FOR WORK. NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN ***

My take? I don’t want to be too reactionary, as I’m sure more facts about this will come out. But on first glance, it does seem to me like this footage is not a good look for the officer. Even if the complaints about Promvongsa are true (and there's no excusing what he allegedly did), it doesn’t seem like he was given much of a chance to comply with the arrest, and the knee to the head and subsequent punches (while Promvongsa was already on his knees) seem extremely unnecessary to me. Promvongsa most likely deserved to be arrested, but it does look like officer Joswiak went over the line in doing so.

But that’s just my opinion – feel free to share yours on our Facebook page. You can also read the full story here.